The Lottery by Shirley Jackson

After the publication of Shirley Jackson's story The Lottery in The New Yorker in June 1948, hundreds of people wrote in asking whether the account of shocking events in a New England village was based on reality. The ordinariness of human cruelty appalled some – and prompted others to ask where they could go and watch.

In this episode, we discuss Jackson’s life and work – including her complex relationships and vibrant unconventionality – and look in detail at her most famous short story. What can it tell us about what Hannah Arendt described as ‘the banality of evil’? How does it subvert Gothic tropes and invite the reader to question their own complicity in harmful traditions?

We will have to give spoilers as we can’t discuss the story without them – so if you haven’t read The Lottery, you might want to do so before listening. The full text is available online here.

We also mention another of Jackson’s stories, The Witch, which you can find here.

For a superb biography, we highly recommend Ruth Franklin’s Shirley Jackson – A Rather Haunted Life (2016).

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